The former top judge in the UK’s Supreme Court has accused the Trump administration of “unjustifiable interference” after pressure was exerted on the UK over free speech.
Lord Sumption’s intervention came after the US State Department made a rare intervention in British politics, warning of its “concerns about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom”.
The department, responsible for US foreign policy, put a statement on X, highlighting fears about the prosecution of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt.
The row has come after The Independent revealed that vice president J.D. Vance is intending to use spurious claims over free speech being attacked in the UK to force Keir Starmer to ditch his online safety bill and digital services tax as part of a deal on a free trade agreement.
The State Department alleged Ms Tossici-Bolt faces criminal charges for offering conversation with patients seeking abortions within a legally prohibited “buffer zone” outside a clinic. “We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression,” the State Department’s dedicated democracy, human rights and labour (DRL) account posted.
It added: “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”
The account has previously criticised police in Scotland over a similar incident in a restricted “buffer zone” near an abortion clinic. Other countries criticised by the arm of the State Department include Bangladesh, Iran and Russia.
It comes after the department’s senior DRL advisor visited the UK in March and met with Ms Tossici-Bolt, who leads an anti-abortion group called 40 Days for Life Bournemouth.
Lord Sumption told PM on BBC Radio 4: “It’s a completely unjustifiable interference in the internal affairs of another country. I do not think that the United States has jurisdiction over the world’s laws.
“The fact is that all civilised countries place some limitations on free speech, even the United States.
“I don’t believe it’s any business of the United States to criticise this. The principal offender against free speech at the moment, outside obvious totalitarian states like Russia or China, is in fact the United States of America, which makes it extremely ironic that they’ve taken to lecturing other people on the subject.”
Ms Tossici-Bolt was on trial at Poole Magistrates’ Court in February having been accused of breaching the Public Spaces Protection Order on two days in March 2023. A verdict on her case is due on Friday.
She was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion reading: “Here to talk if you want to.” Buffer zones are in place within 150 metres of clinics to prevent women seeking abortions from being harassed by protesters. They make it an offence to do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences someone’s decision to use abortion services, obstructs them, or causes harassment, alarm or distress to someone using or working at the premises.
And Ms Tossici-Bolt, a retired medical scientist living in Bournemouth, Dorset, welcomed the high-profile US intervention in her case. She said: «I am grateful to the US State Department for taking note of my case.
«Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I’ve been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation. I’m thankful to ADF International for supporting my legal defence.
«Peaceful expression is a fundamental right – no one should be criminalised for harmless offers to converse.»
She added: «It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the US feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties.
«I’m grateful to the US administration for prioritising the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end.
«It deeply saddens me that the UK is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech.
«My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today.
«It is important that the government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to.»
Fears were raised that Ms Tossici-Bolt’s case was responsible for the UK’s failure to strike a trade deal with the US and avoid Donald Trump’s tariffs, with one source telling the Daily Telegraph there should be “no free trade without free speech”.
But, asked about the claim, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Times Radio: “No, I can say as someone who is very closely part of the issues that are currently being discussed, obviously there are things from different people in the administration that they’ve said in the past about this, but it’s not been part of the trade negotiations that I’ve been part of.»
